[Citadel] A Simple Job (closed)

The pilot of the gunship did notice the aircar and with a sudden jerk flies downwards, seconds later the vehicle is moving into the Citadel's superstructure at breakneck speeds, avoiding oversized pipes, cables and whatever else that is needed to keep the Citadel running.

"Shit!" Sulla yells to no one in particular. Thankfully the VI doesn't respond with anything nasty this time, and Sulla brings the aircar down by slamming on the brakes and pushing the steering wheel as far forward as it would go. His feet find the acceleration pedal and he presses it down when the front of the car points roughly in the right direction.

When the maze of girders, steaming pipes and other less-than-conveniently arranged obstacles approaches, Sulla overcomes his natural instinct of shutting his eyes tightly and throwing his claws in front of his face. The turian steers into the fray, after the gunship.

The ship turns to the side, and ends up in a cavernous space, large strange machinery and 'buildings' line the sides, connected to each other by cables and pipes. The gunship's bulk is making it difficult to maneuver as it already clipped and chipped some of the pipes, sending debris towards Sulla.

Left, left, left, pull up a bit... The turian whispers to himself. Sulla isn't hell bent on catching the gunship; as he would much rather stay alive after teetering on the edge of life and death for more than a year. So if it comes to it, he will quit the pursuit if things get too dangerous.

The space is getting narrower, and the tiny parts of debris coming from the pipes the gunship has scratched rain down on the windshield. Suddenly the debris isn't that small anymore. Sulla makes a hard right to avoid a potentially lethal collision, but the car makes contact with the wall, sending sparks flying and definitely ruining the paintjob.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on whose side you're on, the gunship can't pull the same maneuver and slams against a pipe, then a second one, before long it begins to maneuver erratically, it pulls up, back to the surface but hits some passing traffic and performs an emergency landing on top of the building, smoke bellowing from it.

The car jerks away from the wall as Sulla yanks the steering wheel. When he manages to compose himself, he sees the gunship crashing into a pipe, the pilot pulling up out back into the streets again and out of sight. When the turian finds an opening and emerges from the superstructure, he's just in time to see the gunship crash hard into the side of a freighter.

Sulla stops the car right above the roof and frantically looks for the comm system, his eyes darting across the dashboard while his talons squeeze the steering wheel so hard the material is starting to give in. Now was a good time to inform the Systems Alliance Embassy what the heck was going on. Still, he makes glances at the roof and the gunship almost every second to see any clues of movement or possible escape attempt.

The canopy of the gunship pops off, thanks to a couple of explosive bolts and a lone figure jumps out, still having the same backpack on his back. He starts to run across the roof, jumping over a second one and sliding over a inclined one until he hits the ground...

Sulla might be able to follow him with the car, but with the urban setting of alleys and nooks he might have better chance if he went on foot.

Oh it was on

Sulla drops the aircar straight to the street, next to the building with a smoking gunship nesting on its roof. He opens the door and is running after the burglar before the car has ended the landing sequence properly. The turian realizes he has left his messenger bag somewhere, and instantly misses the rhythmic tap against his body. However, all extra weight at this point would just be a hindrance.

He spots the thief half a block away, curses his bad planning and charges right after the man. You made a mistake now, bitch. No getting away anymore. Sulla hears only the sounds of his own breathing in his ears, the shouts and stares of any possible pedestrians like air to him.

Sulla closes in and he can see how the man has a little limp, thanks to cut from the turian's talons when they first met. Still he's a way off and isn't shy of grabbing and throwing junk behind him, carton boxes and pushed over bins litter the alley. Worse still he jumps over a small divide and begins to climb upwards.

"Stupid cuttlebone... just leave me alone!" he shouts over his shoulder.

Wasting your breath on stupid one-liners... This guy wasn't a professional. Sulla knows every molecule of oxygen counts, because when you run out, your muscles stop functioning at max capacity. The limp is good -it'll start hurting more by the minute and Sulla can tackle the guy. Sulla easily leaps over the bins or simply goes around them - he has cleared obstacles many times of their size.

Now we're talking. The turian clears the gap easily and jumps after the thief, sure claws grabbing any possible salient.

The man escaped the turian's claws, by a hair. and clambered up the ladder until he hit the roof, jumped over to another roof and continued to run each step was more difficult than the previous one, he slowed down after each jump, had trouble getting up after each slide and was having trouble with each climb, soon Sulla could get his quarry.

Sulla scurries up the ladder two rungs at a time. When he gets to the top, he heaves himself up and propels himself forward with his arms. He slides under a cooling unit the thief had gone around, vaults over a pipe the man had trouble getting over and suddenly distance between the two runners was shortening fast. Sulla flexes his claws as the target getgs nearer and nearer, his basic predatory instincts dilating the pupils and nostrils for the upcoming confrontation.

The turian goes through different scenarios in his head: they were on rooftops so he had to be careful not to push him down or fall himself. Albert didn't pay him enough to get a murder charge, or at least manslaughter. Go for the legs, topple him and go for the head. He had to end this quickly.

The man continues to limp along, trying desperately to get more air in him... this was not like it was supposed to be. He didn't even look after him, he just needed to go, Sulla had the opportunity to finish it now.

After the two clear one last obstacle, Sulla estimates the gab to be about two meters. It was now or never. The turian was panting and wheezing himself, and he could feel his legs starting to grow tired, but the rush of adrenaline could keep him moving for many more minutes if the need arose.

He jumps, going for a sliding tackle aimed at the legs. The turian packs a mean kick, and his preferred location of impact would be behind the knee. That would bring the man down sure enough.

"ACK"

The man collapsed when Sulla hit him right behind the knee, inertial caused him to stumble forward and roll a few times before coming to rest against an AC unit. He was wheezing trying to get air. His hand reached up and opened the clasp of the mirror surface of his helmet. Revealing to Sulla the face of a drell in his twenties.

"You're good cocksucker," the voice is different, far more drell like, the helmet probably had some voice modulator installed to hide his normal voice.

"Get Kepler's and die" is Sulla's hissed answer to the drell's taunting as he strides up to the burglar and just flat out kicks the downed enemy in the gut, aiming at the wound his talons had cut earlier. And then a second time just to be sure he stays down. Guess the war left its marks on everyone. "I'll have that, thank you very much", the turian says, as he reaches for the backpack.

Sulla feels very dizzy. He tries not to show it outwards, but he is still weak from the lack of nutrition over the couple of past months. His shrunken muscles are burning, but he tries to stop them from shaking and show any kind of weakness to the drell.

The slim backpack is filled with some OSDs and some electronics that look like bugs, maybe it was the plan to take the OSDs and leave the surveillance equipment?

The drell hissed when he's hit in the gut, spitting out some blood, "ah... typical turian always using blunt force... no wonder you whores collude with those monkeys" He shifts, "when the great ones return from repairing the damage you lot caused to Relays your kind will be cleansed. While us fateful will be allowed to ascended and join the ranks of the chosen."

Sulla has already turned to leave and call it in when the things the drell says stop him in his tracks. "Great ones... Are you one of them clowns that call themselves the Sovereign Nation?" The turian turns back and you can see his mandibles shut closely against his cheeks. His eyes have narrowed to slits, and he proceeds to stare at the drell for a while. His breathing gets shallow and fast, it sounds almost like he was hyperventilating. "I should toss your indoctrinated ass off this roof. I'd make this galaxy a favor." He takes a step towards the slumped form. "Or maybe I'll just spill your insides out right here, right on this roof, and see what drell guts look like. Red? Blue? Green?" His voice is calm, like he was describing the weather. Sulla starts walking slowly towards the drell. His wrist makes a snapping motion and his claw balls into a fist. When nothing happens, he repeats the motion and when that doesn't work, he stops and stares at his arm with a confused expression.

There's a weird glimmer in the turian's eyes as he turns back to face the thief. "Oh right. This is not my military omnitool", he states flatly while staring the drell down. He then blinks a few times and turns away again. This time the omnitool does come up. "Mister Lowell? Target is subjugated. I got your OSDs back. What should I do with this guy right here? He seems to be a Reaper cultist or something. Do I call C-Sec?"

The drell tries to get up as the Sulla approaches him but fails there's fear in his eyes but once the omni-blade fails to appear he lets out a chuckle.

"Can you hear me?" the voice on the omnitool echoes, the connection was really bad, "I... oh you have good, yeah call C-Sec let them deal with him."

"Ha yeah call them, sucker... and you'll be the one getting arrested." the drell calls out, he throws something against Sulla's back. "Diplomatic Immunity, mother fucker, call C-Sec and you'll see what happens when scum like you beat up a Illuminated Primacy vehicle and one of their diplomats." on the ground behind him is a badge, identifying the drell, a Jian Mor, as working for the Primacy.

"Come back home Sulla, leave the scum be, just take a pic of his face and send it to me... oh and we need to talk about your fee..."

"...shit", Sulla manages after he picks up the badge and inspects it carefully. He snaps a quick photo of the drell and then cuts and runs, sliding down the nearest ladder. However, his hands start to fail him halfway through the drop. He manages to hold on until he is about three meters off the ground before he loses his grip, and the turian tumbles to the ground, too tired to make a proper roll.

He clambers back up quickly, coughing and trying to dust off his clothes, and starts towards the aircar, with a walking pace this time though. They definitely needed to talk about his payment. This wasn't a 150 credit job. As he gets in the still waiting car (Sulla lets out a sigh of relief when he sees no one has stolen the exquisite car), he closes the door and buries his face in his claws for a minute or so. What was that back on the roof? After composing himself somewhat, Sulla takes the car up and back towards the diplomats apartment, setting the thing on autopilot.